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Commentary

Trust The Military

Large majorities in eight Western European countries surveyed by Pew Research Center, and reported by Courtney Johnson, said they trust the military, ranging from 84% in France to 66% in Spain. And
on a similar survey question, asked in the United States earlier this year, 80% of Americans said they have confidence that the military will act in the best interests of the public.

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Other
institutions received far lower marks on both sides of the Atlantic.

Across the eight European nations polled, a median of only 53% expressed confidence in banks and financial institutions.
This trust varied by region: While about half or more in each of the five northern European countries surveyed said they trust banks, only 18% in Spain, 29% in Italy and 39% in France said the
same.

Most Western Europeans Trust Military

Country

Military

Financial

Parliament

News
Media

France

84%

39%

33%

35%

UK

82

54

36

32

Italy

82

29

16

29

Sweden

77

62

71

64

Denmark

74

56

50

47

Netherlands

71

65

68

67

Germany

70

52

55

64

Spain

66

18

16

31

Median

76

53

43

41

Source: Pew Research Center, Oct/Dec 2017

The U.S. survey did not ask about banks and financial institutions,
specifically. But it found that just 45% of American adults had confidence in business leaders to work in the best interests of the public. In both Europe and the U.S., elected officials and the news
media received even lower marks than banks and business leaders did.

About four-in-ten Europeans said they trust their parliament and the national news media (medians of 43% and 41%,
respectively). Roughly half or more people in the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany and Denmark said they trust the news media and parliament. Notably, however, British adults reported far lower levels of
trust than people in other northern European countries did. Only about a third of British adults said they trust the news media (32%) or the country’s parliament (36%). These levels of trust
were more similar to those found in the southern European countries of France, Spain and Italy.

Americans’ feelings toward the news media and elected officials were more similar to those
in the UK and southern Europe than those in northern Europe. Just four-in-ten Americans said they have confidence in the news media to act in the public’s best interests, and only a quarter of
Americans said the same about elected officials.

Across the European nations surveyed, trust in parliament was strongly linked to people’s views of their country’s main party in
power (or the party that holds the country’s chancellorship, premiership or presidency). Those who viewed their country’s leading party favorably were more likely to place trust in their
national parliament as an institution. For example, 81% of Dutch people with favorable views of Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) said they trust
their parliament, compared with just 53% of people who view the VVD unfavorably.

A similar partisan pattern emerged in the U.S. Although the majority of Americans said they don’t have
confidence in elected officials, more Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (36%) than Democrats and Democratic leaners (17%) had confidence.

This pattern held for other national
institutions as well. Europeans with favorable views of their countries’ leading party expressed higher levels of trust in the military, the news media and banks and financial institutions.

In the U.S., Republicans expressed higher levels of confidence in the military and in business leaders, but not in the news media. Just 16% of Republicans said they have confidence that the media
will act in the best interests of the public, compared with 58% of Democrats.